Wednesday, February 27, 2013

House Bill 521 (2013)
would require all persons holding a License to Carry hold liability
insurance in the amount of $1,000,000. When I heard about this, I
immediately wrote to Rep. Stan Saylor (who is, it turns out, my
across-the-parking lot neighbor).

Rep Saylor,

This is what I refer to as a "nibble"... a "feel-good" means of
nibbling away at citizen's rights. It is an underhanded attempt to make
it more difficult (in this case, expensive) for citizens to exercise
their Constitutional right to own and carry firearms.

Please vote "No".

Thank you,
leelu

After the protest last Saturday, I decided to see what else our busy little state people had in mind for us. Turns out, quite a bit! Aside from the liability insurance ploy, they're proposing:

(Links to the full text of the bills.)

HB 517 - an "assault weapons" ban. Like elsewhere, the criteria are all pretty much cosmetic. It starts out with this:

"(c) Definition.--As used in this section, the term "assaultweapon" means:
(1) Any selective-fire firearm capable of fully automatic, semiautomatic or burst fire at the option of the user or any of the other following specified
(list follows)

I don't know if this means my semi-automatic .22, which is incapable of full auto fire.

The bill then goes into a full Chinese menu of cosmetic features, any two together resulting in the wepon being banned. I want to know how law enforcement is expected to remember all of this??

(a) General rule.--All firearms in this Commonwealth shall
be registered in accordance with this section. It shall be the
duty of a person owning or possessing any firearm to cause the
firearm to be registered. No person within this Commonwealth may
possess, harbor, have under the person's control, transfer,
offer for sale, sell, give, deliver or accept any firearm unless
the person is the holder of a valid registration certificate for
the firearm. No person within this Commonwealth may possess,

harbor, have under the person's control, transfer, offer for
sale, sell, deliver or accept any firearm which is
unregisterable under this act."

Further along, the best part:

"Each person holding a registration certificate shall:

(3) Keep any firearm in the registrant's possession unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock, gun safe or similar device unless the firearm is in the registrant's immediate possession and control while at the registrant's place of residence or business or while being used for lawful recreational purposes within this Commonwealth. This paragraph shall not apply to law enforcement personnel or security personnel while in the course of their employment."

Does that supercede my carry permit? Will I have to keep my pistol unloaded while I carry it? How much will registration cost?

"Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in general principles of justification, further providing for definitions, for use of force in self-protection, for use of force for the protection of property and for use of force by persons with special responsibility for care, discipline or safety of others.

(1) The use of force is not justifiable under thissection:

(iii) if the actor knows that he can avoid the
necessity of using such force with complete safety byretreating; or

(iv) if the actor was instructed by a peace officeror public safety dispatcher to not pursue another person."

Those two phrases are scattered throughout the existing bill.

I suppose if a police officer said "Don't follow him", I'd be inclined to stay put. Don't know if I need that spelled out. But, if some shag-nasty is coming after me with a knife, I would prefer not to have to be forced to spend time figuring out if I'll be safe under the bed or not. Thinking about that, versus the immediate threat, seem to be, well, unsafe.

And, don't worry. The state Senate has gotten into the act too, with SB 435.

(2)
A semiautomatic center fire rifle with overall length of less than
30 inches.

(3)
A semiautomatic center fire rifle with a fixed magazine capable of
holding over ten rounds of ammunition.

(4)
A semiautomatic pistol capable of accepting detachable magazines and
a threaded barrel; a second handgrip; a capacity to accept a
detachable magazine at some location outside the pistol grip; or a
shroud attached to, or partially or completely encircling, the barrel
allowing the bearer to fire the weapon without burning the bearer's
hand, except for a slide enclosing the barrel.

(5)
A semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine having the capacity to
accept over ten rounds.

(6)
A semiautomatic shotgun having a folding or telescoping stock; a
pistol grip protruding conspicuously beneath the action of the
weapon, a thumbhole stock or a vertical handgrip.

(7)
A semiautomatic shotgun with the ability to accept detachable
magazines.

(8)
A shotgun with a revolving cylinder.

"Large
capacity magazine." Any detachable ammunition feeding device
with the capacity to accept more than ten rounds of ammunition. The
term does not include any of the following:

(1)
a feeding device that has been permanently altered so that it cannot
accommodate more than ten rounds;

2)
a .22 caliber tube ammunition feeding device; or

(3)
a tubular magazine that is contained in a lever action firearm.

Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days."

Nibbles, as I said to Mr. Saylor. I'm gratified to find that his name is on none of the House bills.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

What started out as the morning dog walk tuned into a peaceful assembly/protest. Who knew??

I didn't know anything about it until I turned the corner onto Main St. and saw this:

We cut the walk short, and went home. I swapped my Breakers cap for my NRA cap, and went over to join in and get some photos:

The crowd across the intersection.

Two speeches were given. Acoustics were crap, but I caught quotations
from the Declaration of Independence. We were exhorted to read and know
the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He said (I paraphrase) "The
Second Amendment is the gun law for this country." We recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

A couple of folks came bearing arms.

Nifty signs

I
haven't been to a demonstration since the 80s. This one seemed to me
to be important to participate in. The direction President Obama is
taking this country is wrong. No government should have as much control
of peoples' live has his assumed, from health care to unconstitutional
laws trying to disarm the citizenry.

I have not been
this afraid since the early 60s, when I wondered every day if the
Russians would push the button down. I do not want the sheriff coming
to my door to inspect my guns. I want to afford to shoot them, which
means nothing but sales tax on ammo. I don't need expensive liability
insurance because I own guns.
The people I met today seemed
decent, rational, and patriotic. Several people recommended a
particular gun club to me, and I plan on joining. I don't want to be
alone in this mess.

Main
and Broadway is a busy intersection, PA routes 24 and 74, from the MD
state line, up to York and Carlisle. We got a lot of support
from passers-by, honking horns, waving, and giving thumbs-up. I'm happy
be where the kind of government intrusion Obama seems bent on will be
resisted. I am glad I wound up here.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

I replied:

When I first got Shin-wa, he was
very interested in the dishwasher. He
would hop in and poke around. I was afraid of locking him in for a
cycle, so, one day, when I had it open and empty, he happened to hop
in. I shut the door, and 'bumped' the lever that locked and started the
machine, just enough for it to make the noise it did.

I opened the door. Shin-wa stood rock still, blinked twice, and popped out, never to enter the machine again.

Shin-wa, the Quick Learner

One of my other friend replied to the original:

Sounds like something that could catch on. Since it works with cats, why not difficult to clean 4-yr-olds, too.

...to which I replied:

Rob - four-year-olds are generally too big for a top loading
machine. If you have a front loader, it might work, depending on the
size of said four-year-old.

I preferred to strap them to the top of the car and take it and them
through the car wash. Of course, you have to flip 'em and go thru
again, which is why I used the automated self-service washes.

It was easier when I had the old Subaru "Brat". It was a small pick-up with seats in the back. Made it
much easier...

Sunday, February 17, 2013

As I've announced, we have a guest post today from the lovely and talented Sara Hoyt. Enjoy!

The
whole subject of gun control baffles me. Of course, those who know
me will tell you that this is because my astigmatism is so bad that I
can’t hit the broad side of a barn on a clear day – so gun
control is at best nominal when the gun is in my hands.

The
other type of gun control baffles me too. I grew up in a country
(Portugal) at a time when guns were very tightly controlled. I’m
not sure what the laws were, but I know that if you were a private
citizen and needed a gun for defense, even if you were, say,
transporting gold in your car and had received threatening letters,
your chances of getting a license to carry were… infinitesimal.

So…
My dad taught all my friends to shoot in grandma’s backyard. Guns?
Well, I used to be offered guns for sale every time I went into the
train station to go home from school. (I guess school made me look
like I really wanted a gun. Oh, wait. Yes, it did. Well, you can’t
blame me. First, it was an all girls school – I want the idiots
who write about peaceful all female planets to go to all girls
school, as a girl, for a day – and second this was the school where
I studied many things but they were all Marxism.) I never bought any
simply because dad had told me that the safest person would be the
one I aimed a gun at. (And I knew he was right.) But they were
right there. I got offered guns more than I got offered drugs.
(Though that might have had something to do with how upset I looked.)
This, in Portugal, in the seventies, meant that there were guns
available on the street at every moment and for every price.

The
idea that government can keep something that everyone knows is
available out of the public’s hands is insane. At most they can
keep law-abiding (and fearful of trouble) but not out of the hands of
criminals and those inclined to mischief.

Which,
of course, makes you wonder why it’s such a popular idea over most
of the world.

I
have a theory about that. The greatest fear the people in charge
have – always – is of a peasantry capable of opposing them and
imposing their will. (This has been made worse, of course, by the
American revolution and our dangerous ideas of a government by the
people…)

So
while gun control is a really bad idea for keeping the guns out of
the hands of bad actors, or preventing crime, or whatever it is, it
is a very good idea to keep the civilians from having weapons that
could oppose the army or other state-endorsed people. And so, they
sell it as saving us from crime, and they keep pushing.

Which
is why we shouldn’t let them rolls us. Because it doesn’t do
anything we want it to do, but it does render us defenseless in front
of the statist leviathan

It
is a danger to our life, our liberty and our pursuit of happiness

And
though I’m still very bad with guns, my characters use futuristic
guns very well in my book Darkship Renegades, just out from Baen, and
in the upcoming book – also from Baen – A Few Good Men, the first
book of the Earth revolution.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Update: I heard from Sara yesterday. She apparently had an horrific Christmas, followed by a mad rush to get a manuscript for yet another book - Noah's Boy - to the publisher. We agreed on a post about gun control. Hers is a different take, colored by her experience growing up in Portugal. I'll post it tomorrow, so ya'll come back, hear?!

At P.J. Media and According to Hoyt, she writes thoughtful, profanity free posts on politics and literature. The Sarah A Hoyt site is devoted to pimping her novels such as Darkship Thieves, and Shifters, as well as her boatload of short stories. She also is posting a chapter a week of her new novel, which you can read for free here: Witchfinder

She appears here because she is on a virtual book tour for her newest book, Darkship Renegades, the second novel in the Darkship series, which is being released this Tuesday, December 4.

I don't have a clue as to what Sarah may decide to grace leelu's place with, and I'm sure it will be good! Watch this space!!

I'M catholic. I'm mocking my own religion. I'm not singling out anyone but myself and the dogma I was raised in.

Not much of an answer, I guess. But , hey, it's his strip.

I wrote this to him after reading today's strip. If I receive an answer, I shall post it.

Hello, Scott,

I've been reading PvP
since I discovered it quit a few years ago, and have read the entire
canon. I truly enjoy your work, and miss it when you are
unable to get it posted.

Yet, I have to take
issue with the Holy Ghost/Pope story today. First, we generally refer
to it as the Holy "Sprirt", to avoid cliche' associations with Casper, Ghost Busters, and others of that ilk. Second, the Holy Spirit is regarded as the source of
spiritual wisdom and guidance, so it would be natural for the conclave
to pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance. Since prayer is a form of
meditation, it is a process of opening one's self up to the Holy Spirit, to recieve needed guidance.

Anyway..., are you
going to Hell for this strip? I doubt it. Will you lose readers over
it? Maybe one or two. Invective? Possible, but unlikely. However,
since it is considered near hate speech to say words like "fag" or
"queer" in contexts other than their meanings of a "burning bundle of
kindling", (or "cigarette"), and "odd" - a good thing, too, I
respectfully request that you extend the same courtesy and respect to
Catholics and their faith.

This one goes much deeper into bad taste than the usual "fart and dick jokes".

I have a guess or two about this one, based on the inference that he is gay. He has posted some pics of himself with his partner (mentioned, I think, only in the context of their work together). That said, Scott is often looking at Kris the way I look at Te'a Leone. But I'm just guessing, and willing to be wrong. The "go-to" guess is, of course, the Church's stance against homosexuality (but not against homosexuals), and the attendant refusal to consider sanctifying gay marriage.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Having arrived at the Gates of Heaven,
Barack Obama meets a man with a beard.
'Are you Mohammed?' he asks.
'No my son, I am St. Peter; Mohammed is higher up.'
Peter then points to a ladder that rises into the clouds.

Delighted that Mohammed should be higher than St. Peter,
Obama climbs the ladder in great strides,
climbs up through the clouds and comes into a room
where he meets another bearded man.
He asks again, 'Are you Mohammed?'
'Why no,' he answers, 'I am Moses;
Mohammed is higher still.'

Exhausted, but with a heart full of joy
he climbs the ladder yet again.
He discovers a larger room where he meets an
angelic looking man with a beard.
Full of hope, he asks again,
'Are you Mohammed?'
'No, I am Jesus, the Christ;
you will find Mohammed higher up.'

Mohammed higher than Jesus!
Man, oh man! Obama can hardly contain his
delight and climbs and climbs ever higher.
Once again, he reaches an even larger room
where he meets this truly magnificent looking man
with a silver white beard and once again repeats his
question: 'Are you Mohammed?' he gasps as he is by now,
totally out of breath from all his climbing.

'No, my son, I am Almighty God, the Alpha and the Omega,
but you look exhausted.
Would you like a cup of coffee?'
Obama says, 'Yes please!'
As God looks behind him, he claps his hands
and yells out: "Yo, Mohammed, two coffees!"

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

A
confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government
can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be
“senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” --
even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an
active plot to attack the U.S.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

I gather there's a football game tomorrow?Yesterday, it turned out, was a great day to graze my way through Sam's. They were busy pimping munchies and big TVs.Didn't have to make lunch when I got home!